> I dunno, I've done all kinds of stuff to my windows 10 machine to keep Candy Crush Soda from reinstalling itself. Yet every few weeks/months that King garbage ends up on my start menu.

Another anecdote, I right clicked and clicked "unpin from start" and never saw it again.

Sure, but I told windows to uninstall it. Windows reinstalled it. I told it to again, windows did it again.

It bothers me. It doesn't bother you. That's fine.

Microsoft lost points with me, doesn't mean it has to affect you in any way.

Makes sense from a philosophical view, practically it's insignificant.

Besides, I thought only the Anniversary Update had CC? How would it get reinstalled?

Some people don't like having junk they are not using on their computers, even if they 'never see it again', it's all about being in control of your own computer, (as much as possible, that is).

It's still there though, isn't it? Granted you don't see it in the Start Menu, but it remained installed on your system. God knows if it's not having its own process at launch, doing similarly nasty stuff?

It isn't. You could easily check that in Task Manager or Process Explorer and/or Glasswire or whatever.

Most of these things take up a trivial amount of disk space -- some of them are just placeholders -- so they're not worth the time taken to worry about them.

I understand they are not worth it, but it boggles my mind that you have to accept their presence in the first place.

You never explicitly asked for it to be added there, did you?

You never asked for Solitaire or Freecell either. And you never asked for Notepad or Calculator or whatever. Did you have mini-hysterics about Solitaire being bundled, and did you waste hours worrying about it or removing it?

What about the pernicious inclusion of Edie Brickell's Good Times in Windows 95? ;-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqL1BLzn3qc

Candy Crush Saga was actually one of the benefits of Windows 10 that Microsoft promoted, for two reasons: (1) Candy Crush was enormously popular, and (2) it provides practice in touch operations, just as Solitaire got people used to using a mouse.

This is idiocy. Solitaire and Freecell are originally not video games, and nobody is making money off selling them. Candy Crush Saga, on the other hand...well, I don't think I need to explain to you who benefits from having it preinstalled on Windows.

This is idiocy. Freecell was originally sold as part of a games pack for Windows, and Candy Crush Saga is a highly-rated game that's otherwise available from the Windows Store. Thousands of people have downloaded it.

The Good Times video in Windows 95 also sold Edie a lot of CDs, but it would be equally stupid to criticize that. In both cases, Microsoft is providing something entertaining that demonstrates some benefit of the operating system.

I don't give a shit if it's highly rated. The Chainsmokers are also highly rated and completely critically empty as well, just like Candy Crush. To compare the two is lunacy, it's the difference between Windows Media Player coming with Bach sample music versus Nickelback. Thousands of people downloading something is no excuse for advertising it and forcing it down the throats of probably millions more paying customers. It sets a bad precedent for Microsoft either way because they're supposed to be the company that supports Freedom Zero where Apple doesn't, and yet increasingly your use of their software is contingent on accepting ugly and invasive advertising. This is also why "you can turn it off" is a non-criticism. "You can turn it off" is an acceptable response to Siri being included with macOS, I shouldn't even have to deal with advertisements in the first place.

If you don't see this as part of a bigger trend I don't think I can help you do so.

You're insane if you think it's an advertisement. If you can't see that, I don't think I can help you do so.

I guess you think it's clever to imitate me or something? Anyways you clearly have nothing more to contribute. Microsoft wanted to give away Windows 10 "for free" but realized they'd be screwed money wise, so they loaded it up with advertising and telemetric crap to try and compensate. It's really that simple. I'm sorry I bothered engaging in the first place, and I certainly won't continue if you just imitate me with more inane bullshit in your reply.

LOL. I certainly won't continue if you just imitate me with more inane bullshit in your reply.

Unstoppable force, meet immovable object.

No, I think King is paying Microsoft a hefty price to advertise to you directly in your start menu.

Evidence?

Note the "think" in my statement. I have no evidence. I just can't fathom Microsoft actually thinking pre-installing Candy Crush on Windows 10 provides a net positive value to their customer, more than the company King Digital. With its psychological scammy IAP scheme. Or maybe Microsoft is just in on the IAP scam. Either way, its the first thing I removed when I installed Windows 10.

Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc certainly promoted it as a feature:

"Solitaire. Hearts. Minesweeper. These are games that have been played millions of times over the years in Windows. And they are coming back in Windows 10. If you’re a Windows Insider, you can check out a preview of the new Microsoft Solitaire Collection that’s included in the latest build of the Windows 10 Insider Preview (Build 10074). In addition to these games, we’re also working with partners to bring some of their great games to Windows 10 too. And we’re excited to be able to announce today that King will bring their game, Candy Crush Saga, to Windows 10. Candy Crush Saga will be automatically installed for customers that upgrade to or download Windows 10 during the launch! Over time, other popular and awesome King game titles will be available for Windows 10. Ever since Candy Crush Saga arrived for Windows Phone, I’ve spent countless hours of fun matching candies. I’m really looking to playing Candy Crush Saga and King’s other game titles on Windows 10."

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2015/05/14/candy...

God, and anyone who knows how to read logfiles.